Beer For Dummies

387 Pages·2023·9.556 MB·English

by  Marty Nachel

Beer
3rd Edition
by Marty Nachel and Steve Ettlinger
Beer For Dummies®, 3rd Edition
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2023 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022951362
ISBN 978-1-394-15911-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-394-15912-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-394-15913-0 (ebk)
Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Part 1: Getting a Taste of Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER 1: Drink Up! Beginning with Beer Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: Beer Ingredients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 7
CHAPTER 3: A Little Brew Magic: Understanding How Beer Is Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Part 2: Taking a Look at Beer Styles — Old,
New, and Revived, Too . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 .5
CHAPTER 4: Getting to Know the Mother Beer Categories: Ales,
Lagers, and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CHAPTER 5: Investigating “Real” Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
CHAPTER 6: Exploring Barrel-Aged and Wood-Aged Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
CHAPTER 7: Acid Trips: In Search of Sour Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
CHAPTER 8: Checking Out Organic, Gluten-Free, and Kosher Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
CHAPTER 9: Is Beer Going to Pot? Hemp Beer, CBD Beer, and THC Beer . . . . . . . . . 105
Part 3: Buying and Enjoying Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
CHAPTER 10: The Better Way to Buy Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
CHAPTER 11: Looking at Label Lunacy and Marketing Mayhem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
CHAPTER 12: Serving Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
CHAPTER 13: Making Your Buds Wiser: Tasting and Evaluating Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
CHAPTER 14: Dining with Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
CHAPTER 15: Cooking with Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Part 4: Exploring Beer Around the
World and at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 .89
CHAPTER 16: Who Really Owns Which Brands? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
CHAPTER 17: Sampling Beer in North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
CHAPTER 18: Trying Beer Around the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
CHAPTER 19: Embarking on Beer Travel and Tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
CHAPTER 20: Brewing Beer at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
CHAPTER 21: Beer in the Digital World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Part 5: The Part of Tens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
CHAPTER 22: Ten Ways to Grow Your Appreciation of Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
CHAPTER 23: The Ten Best Beer Cities in the World (And a Few Extras) . . . . . . . . . . . 303
CHAPTER 24: The Ten Best Beer Festivals in the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
CHAPTER 25: The Ten Most Important Beer Competitions in the World . . . . . . . . . . 319
Part 6: Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
APPENDIX A: A Quick Guide to Beer Styles and Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
APPENDIX B: A Short History of Beer (For the True Beer Nut) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Foolish Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Icons Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Beyond the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
PART 1: GETTING A TASTE OF BEER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
CHAPTER 1: Drink Up! Beginning with Beer Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Introducing Beer’s Building Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Surveying Different Styles of Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Ales versus lagers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Hybrid and specialty beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Shopping for and Savoring Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Buying beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Serving and tasting beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Dining with beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Cooking with beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Taking a Tour of Beers around the Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
North and South America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Europe, Africa, Asia, and beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Brewing Your Own Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
From the Sublime to the Ridiculous:
CHAPTER 2:
Beer Ingredients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Barley: Cereal for Beer, Not for Breakfast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Hops: Flowers for Flavor and Aroma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Getting to know top hops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Hopping for bitterness, aroma, and more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Yeast: A Fungus Is Among Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Water: A Big Influence on Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Wing of Bat, Eye of Newt: Adjuncts You May Love or Hate . . . . . . . . . . 23
A Little Brew Magic: Understanding
CHAPTER 3:
How Beer Is Made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Kettles, Tuns, and Tanks: Brewing Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Ale Alchemy: The Brewing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Malting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Milling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Mashing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Table of Contents v
Boiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Fermenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Aging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
PART 2: TAKING A LOOK AT BEER STYLES —
OLD, NEW, AND REVIVED, TOO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
Getting to Know the Mother Beer Categories:
CHAPTER 4:
Ales, Lagers, and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Two Big Branches on the Beer Family Tree:
Distinguishing Ales and Lagers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Yeast determines the classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
You can taste the difference, sometimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Old-School Beer: Understanding Ales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
The “New” Beer on the Block: Getting Familiar with Lagers . . . . . . . . . 41
All Mixed Up: Taking Note of Hybrid Beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Warm fermentations with lager yeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Cold fermentations with ale yeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Looking at Specialty Beers . . . . . . . . 43
The Anatomy of Beer Styles: Examining the
Traits of Different Beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Defining beer styles with three simple parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using a few tasting terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Crafting great beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Style Is Everything: Listing Common Beer Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Ales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Lagers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Hybrid beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Specialty beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
New(er) World Beer Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
CHAPTER 5: Investigating “Real” Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Understanding What Makes Ale “Real” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Starting the Real Ale Journey in Casks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
A barrel of fun: Checking out the parts of a cask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Sizing up the situation: Pins, firkins, kilderkins, and beyond . . . . . 64
Refining and Conditioning Real Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Let’s make this perfectly clear: Clarifying with finings . . . . . . . . . . . 66
From the spile file: Letting real ale breathe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Dispensing Real Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Pulling real ale through a beer engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Using a tap for gravity dispense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
CAMRA: Campaign for Real Ale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
vi Beer For Dummies
CHAPTER 6: Exploring Barrel-Aged and Wood-Aged Beer . . . . . . . . 73
Differentiating Between “Barrel-Aged” and “Wood-Aged” . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Figuring Out Which Wood Is Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Choosing new or used barrels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Opting for oak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Creating new beer flavors with old barrel flavors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Marking Some Milestones in the Aging Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Checking the beer’s oxidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Deciding whether to let the beer sour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Blending beers from two or more barrels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Time is of the (oaky) essence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Festival of Barrel-Aged Beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
CHAPTER 7: Acid Trips: In Search of Sour Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
Acidic Doesn’t Always Mean Sour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Simple Sours vs. Complex Sours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
The “Bugs” in Sour Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Beer Souring Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Pre-fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Post-fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The risks required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Checking Out Organic, Gluten-Free,
CHAPTER 8:
and Kosher Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Natural Selection: Organic Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
In the beginning: The rise of organic beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Sorting through organic beer certifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Why go organic? Help the environment —
drink a beer! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Organic movement: A list of organic beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Some Hope for People with Celiac Disease: Gluten-Free Beer . . . . . . . 98
The gluten-free gang: Grains and starches used
in gluten-free beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Free of gluten but full of flavor: A list of gluten-free beers . . . . . . 101
Following the Law: Kosher Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Following the Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Figuring out what qualifies as kosher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Everything’s kosher: A list of kosher beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Is Beer Going to Pot? Hemp Beer,
CHAPTER 9:
CBD Beer, and THC Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Hemp Beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Is hemp legal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
Can hemp beers get you high? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Table of Contents vii
Hemp beer brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
CBD Beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Can CBD beers get you high? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
Is CBD legal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
CBD beer brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
THC Beers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Is THC legal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
THC beer brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
PART 3: BUYING AND ENJOYING BEER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
CHAPTER 10: The Better Way to Buy Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Cans, Bottles, Growlers, and Kegs: Deciding on Your
Container of Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Doing the cancan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117
Opting for bottles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Going for growlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Kicking it with kegs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Purchase or Perish: Looking for the Freshest Beer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Knowing that time isn’t on your side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Aging beer like fine wine — but only in a few special cases . . . . . 122
Staying away from beer left out of the cold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Avoiding the light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Checking out the store scene before buying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Did You Get Burnt? Checking Your Beer at Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Popping your top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Battling the oxidation blues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Not So Smoothie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Looking at Label Lunacy and Marketing
CHAPTER 11:
Mayhem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Understanding Labeling Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Label must-haves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
The weak, the strong, and the unintelligible: Alcohol content . . . 129
Know-nothing labels: Additives and preservatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
The Reinheitsgebot: The German beer purity law . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Beer Advertising and Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Touting nonessential details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Invading craft brew territory with stealth micros
from megabrewers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
“Guinness Is Good for You”: Nutritional Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Cholesterol and fat free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Drink beer, live longer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
viii Beer For Dummies